Part 1: Is it possible that the fate of this one river in the most productive agricultural region in the world, California’s Central Valley, offers a chance to restore the historical balance between nature and the mark of humans on the land?

Part 2: What was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River disappeared more than100 years ago due to water diversion and land reclamation for agriculture.

THE VALLEY AND THE LAKE is a four-part film odyssey focused on water issues, conflicts, and hopes in California’s Central Valley, the breadbasket of the world and also the most human-altered landscape on the planet.

Part 4: Is there enough groundwater to balance the needs of our cities and our farms and still preserve the natural world around us?

Part 3: On the land in the foothills above California’s Central Valley, we join Wukchumni basket weavers, Jennifer Malone and her mother, Marie Wilcox, as they gather basket materials and weave baskets with friends and family.